The Manhattan Toy Company: MiO Doll House Review

For Christmas I searched high and low for dolls and furniture to compliment our empty old wooden dollhouse. The original dolls and pieces had been long gone for years. I really didn't care much for the same old doll house stuff that had been circulating around for years. I really couldn't find anything else though. I was about to give up when I saw this on a Google image search I did for dolls and doll houses:

Hello cute people. Why are you so round and cute!?

And then...

HOW CUTE!

I learned they are called MiO, I visited The Manhattan Toy Company's website link and found a new little world waiting for me. The soft little bean bag bodies looked perfect for younger kids to grip and play with, and especially to set down and stand upright It's very frustrating for a young child when the toy they are playing with won't stand up. I noted right away there were various open ended ways the houses and other materials could be manipulated. If these toys sparked creativity and imagination in me, imagine what a child would think! I was finally excited! At first I thought I'd just get the little soft people, but it didn't take long for me to convince myself that I needed to keep our regular wooden dollhouse in storage a bit longer and embark on a brand new play adventure for our family.


Plus, I saw this:

Tree house with a tire swing! Just take my money now.

If you subscribe to their emails they give you a 20% off coupon. Cool deal! As soon as my order arrived I wanted to see those little people! They were indeed cute! Later the evening, when the kids were sleeping, I played with the new toys. I was very pleased with everything. I sat on my bedroom floor testing them all out while telling my husband repeatedly to keep coming in to look at what I had made. It was hilarious! On Christmas morning the kids loved them!

I noticed right away that this wonderfully fresh toy is about play as much as it's about set up. With so many other doll houses my kids only seemed to enjoy setting up. However, the tree house, the homes that change from one to two story (or more!), the car and trailer, the roofs that can double as tents for camping, the various people and animals, and even the trees and blocks, they all provide so many ways to create, play, and story tell. I notice that with these we are telling a story as we build.

One thing we added to the set, which was not from The Manhattan Toy Company,  is a stacking rainbow. See the curved wooden pieces? It's a wonderful add on.

You can find the wooden mini stacking rainbow here. 

(Watch the price though and look for deals. They are usually $19.99, but are $34.95 right now.) 

Our Trip to Mansfield and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum

As an early birthday present for Penelope I took her on a trip to Mansfield, MO to visit the Laura Ingalls homestead and museum! Her actual birthday is in October, but Wilder Days is held in September each year and we wanted to go! There's a big parade in town, lots of fun events, a fiddle off, and a pageant at the town park and amphitheater near the high school. We have been meaning to go for years and I realized time was slipping away from me. Penelope will always love Laura, and I am willing to bet her passion will find her in Mansfield many more times in her life, but she only has but this one chance to go to Mansfield as a (barely) 10 year old girl. At first we were going to take the whole family, but I soon started to worry about not being able to spend the quality time with Penelope at the Laura Ingalls-Wilder Museum that I had always imagined. I became concerned that Ricky and I wouldn't get to see much of the pageant because one of us would be juggling almost two year old Madeline at all times. Bea and Madeline, and even Everett, are really too young for us to take to most places without some degree of chaos.  I really wanted to experience the trip with Penelope rather than just something we drove her to go see and do. It was a  last minute resolution that I would just take Penelope, Sebastian, and Layla. We also invited Ricky's parents and sister to meet us there too! That made the trip even more fun! So, Ricky stayed back at home with the kids. It's about a three hour drive from our house. To a lot of people that's a little, teeny-weeny day trip, to me it's A BIG DAY TRIP. I'm not really a good traveler! And, I left my nursling baby at home. It's a big deal to leave a whole day from morning to bedtime! One day it won't be, but right now it just is.

We stopped for yummy pastries on the way and had a very nice drive through the country to Mansfield, MO. The park and amphitheater where the pageant is held had a playground and a great layout overall. It was nice to know for next time that this will be totally do-able with younger kids. While waiting we bought some handkerchief dolls that were for sale.

The Pageant:  “Laura’s Memories”
The pageant was very enjoyable. It's full of little children of all ages and it's so fun to watch! The kids work so hard and the program comes together so nicely despite a very large cast of mostly children!  It really told so many stories. It was so neat to have read the books, so all the story lines and songs were already very familiar to follow. Penelope looked on in awe. She had a quite serious face for most of the performance. I think she was so amazed as it came alive.

After the pageant we headed out a couple of short blocks away to the cemetery where we got to pay our respects to Laura. Penelope left a pencil on her tombstone thanking her for writing and sharing her stories with us and the world.

Penelope loved the brief bit we saw of Mansfield and so did I. We then headed to Rocky Ridge Farm!

Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum

There's a large museum expansion that just opened up this year. It is filled with so many personal items: clothing, shoes, toys, books, handwritten notes, real sewing and lace hand stitched by Laura. (She was wildly talented.) So many items that belonged to and were once used and well loved by all the family. It's a beautiful, touching tribute and time capsule of their lives. It was extremely special for us, even breathtaking at times. It amazes me more than ever how many people feel so connected to her and her family through the stories about her life. It's remarkable to ponder over and over how it really wasn't all that long ago that people had to work harder than we could ever imagine working just to survive. When I was a young girl I enjoyed Little House on the Prairie the book and I loved the television show. I think it's really quite special and amazing Laura ultimately got to talk to and hear from her fans as she lived out her days on Rocky Ridge Farm. She died a very famous and well known woman. I think it's special Laura got to know the imprint she made on generations of people, even having the Mansfield library dedicated to her while still alive. And now here we are, MORE GENERATIONS enjoying her work!  It's a very special legacy that brings tears to my eyes.

Each year more than 30,000 visitors from all 50 states

and about 20 countries make their own pilgrimage to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home

You couldn't take pictures in the home, but at the entrance of your tour you could take a picture with this accurately sized Laura cutout. She was very little!

There was no photography allowed inside the home, but this photo I found (stole?) online.

I ADORE the kitchen. 

The kitchen was divine and I loved it so much. The wallpaper made my mouth drop open. The home is perfect in every way. I absolutely fell more in love with it with each room we explored. I think we all did. I cannot wait to visit with Ricky. He loves old homes too and grew up in an old farm house himself. Ricky's parents and sister Deanna loved it too. We have a real *love* for this kind of thing!

Right after snapping this photo I was told I wasn't allowed to take photos in this area. OOOPS!

This is the beautiful Rock House, a beautiful more modern home that Rose (Laura's daughter) built for her. This is where the Little House books were written. Rose, a successful author herself, first encouraged her mother to tell her stories on paper.

You can read about both homes and their roles in Laura's life here 

 

Penelope's birthday gift from the gift shop: a new beautiful prairie dress, and Sebastian's coon cap.

We went a little crazy in the gift shop. We bought bonnets and coon hats and a lovely print of the below artwork.

Back at home we started planning next years trip. The other kids are so excited. I immediately followed a bunch of Mansfield pages on Facebook to keep up to date with the town. For fun we tried to think of businesses we could open up in Mansfield. Penelope wanted to move there so bad! (still does!) So we day dreamed about it and looked at maps of the area. Immediately the kids got right back into their prairie games at home. Something adorable is that Madeline will answer to the name Baby Grace just as well as she naturally answers to Madeline because they play so often. (Laura's youngest sister.)

I started a Facebook page to record the prairie kids' adventures, crafts, and play. I hope like minded Little House / Laura fans might find us. You can find that here:  Little Playhouse on the Prairie

I let my babies eat dirt (and occasionally a bug)

Baby Bee met another milestone!  Eating dirt in the exploratory sense is a developmental milestone and right of passage in our household. I have lots of pictures of every kid in dirt and mud. Many of the photos are of infants through age six, many barefoot, all happy and healthy.

Today was a beautiful day; I once again have an infant at spring time. It's amazing and mind blowing to us that about every two or three years we have another infant in our arms, in the grass, and on the ground. We love the outdoors and on any nice day I'd rather be outside than in; I love all that open space and moving air. As spring arrives I shovel, weed, and plant near a sitting up, crawling, or toddling infant who always ends up plopped down in the middle of grass and dirt. We leave them to play at our feet and they are so happy doing so. Quickly they snatch up leaves with their tiny hands and smear dirt over their tiny lips and tongues. I wipe the excess from their mouths gingerly and I chuckle at them. Before I go back to tending to my flower beds I often grab the camera to record the free spirit of a baby at peace with eating a wee bit of dirt. It's not the same for them as it us for us you know, it's not gross to them. The gritty feeling doesn't even phase them. They look totally content. With every single baby I wonder how much stuff they put into their mouths that we never even see.

From: Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You   
"In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system."

I remember Everett was an infant "the year of the cicada hit." They were invading porches and yards in hoards. The buzzing sound singing from the woods and grass was almost deafening. Some of our friends down the road were being dive bombed on their porches they had so many. We saw them everywhere and they were loud, but we kind of enjoyed them! (We were not being dive bombed!) At the time baby Everett was about six months old. He was sitting up happy to play anywhere, especially outside. Everett would find cicadas almost anywhere and plop them into his curious little mouth. He'd swish and suck on them and scream like heck when we would take them away from him. At first we were a little grossed out but after the fourth cicada it was part of life.

I wrote this spring of 2011 after his first cicada :
Things Everett ate today (that I know of) that he didn't have permission to eat: some grass, 1 piece dog food, 1 cicada. Yea, I said cicada. Everyday outside I hear the words, "Mom, Everett's going to eat a cicada!" Today no one saw him get one... until he was gagging and I scooped it out of him. It was totally gummed up by him. Ha! Being a baby is so awesome.
      

Everett 6 months old 2011. He's probably looking for something earthy to taste.

After that incident he would some how acquire a cicada while just sitting on our lap outdoors, not even in the grass! And even inside the house on occasion we'd find him with one. Those little buggers were everywhere and our kid could find them! It became a joke; if we were outdoors just give Everett 5 minutes and he'd have one. We'd look in the grass where we put him down and there would be none around, but check his mouth or hands in five minutes and he'd totally have one. Some were shells of the bug, some were dead bugs, some were alive bugs. The live ones really grossed us out with their tacky legs! However, people all over the world eat bugs, it's not that weird even if it does sound gross. They are super healthy and so easy to raise. There's even a bug saying:

Red, orange, yellow, forget this fellow.

Black, green or brown, wolf it down.

Funny to think about it now because when he was two and a half he could grab flies out of the thin air. We called him Mr. Miyagi when he grabbed flies. It was hilarious. Our little free range baby.

Everett, six months old 2011

Just Go Play

As always, click to enlarge photos

 I adore the picture below, but felt like making my own version (above) because so often older kids aren't encouraged to play enough, or sometimes at all. I wanted a picture that conveys play at many ages. I remembered that I recently had snapped this photo of my older and younger boys just playing and being silly. They were running, jumping, chasing each other, bouncing on an inflatable, and as they rolled to the ground I thought: this is what childhood is about. The youngest 21 months and the oldest 12 years old. Older kids enjoy play too. A release from the hardships or just plain mundane responsibilities of life, chores, and school work. Be it time with siblings, alone, or with friends; play builds imaginations and memories. So many 'big' kids just don't have enough play in their lives. Older kids still learn from playing too. Just because a person learns something doesn't mean they don't have more to learn, or different things to learn. Playing with others, exploring our world, thinking, problem solving, creating, making friends, riding bikes, coming up with games, skipping stones, catching frogs, tossing around a ball are all timeless and ageless activities. My kids keep themselves busy most of the time, but every kid gets bored. Boredom isn't always a bad thing though. I tell my kids that great innovative thinking and ideas can come from boredom.

I enjoy giving my kids classic toys like: jump ropes, bubbles, chalk, hula hoops, jacks, marbles, paint, hop scotch, sand, swords, and tire swings. Encouraging this kind of simple play is healthy, fun and wholesome...but I do it also because I hope, hope, hope with all my heart they will be inspired (despite this digital age that is so dependent on electronics) to make 100% sure their children one day have an extended opportunity to just PLAY. I see my role clearly: make sure my kids have plenty of time and opportunity to be kids.  Other jobs I have: Tell them to be kids, tell them why, play with them, enjoy them, tell them to make play a priority for their own kids, and take pictures of it all.

Other places to read about the importance of play:
Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills

Climb, Swing & Snuggle: Reading Readiness Involves the Whole Body

Advocates: Importance of play time for children neglected

WHY PLAY MATTERS FOR BOTH KIDS AND ADULTS

7 Reasons Why Kids Need Recess (Even the Kids Who Misbehave)

The Central Importance of Play

What is better than just plain old playing outside? Nothing.

Click link:

• Childhood play is crucial for social, emotional and cognitive ­development.
• Imaginative and rambunctious “free play,” as opposed to games or structured activities, is the most essential type.
• Kids and animals that do not play when they are young may grow into anxious, socially maladjusted adults.

At our house we play. I love these pictures because they capture so much.

Boxes Rule

Cardboard boxes are a blank canvas. No toy can compare to a nice sturdy brown box to crawl into. Since I order almost every Christmas gift for the kids from Amazon we accumulate loads of boxes. Today we put all those boxes to great use!


Airplane ready for take off!




                                                                 I love this airplane! I love their faces!





 We glued lids from various things as controls. I made a strip of buttons from construction paper that say on, off, eject and uh-oh.





 This box was a tunnel for cars and trucks, but Everett and Layla found a second use for it






  Everett popped out and said, "Raaaaw!" He is cute when he tries to hide and then scare or surprise you. I say, "Ahh!" and he laughs and laughs.

Toy kitchen made from cardboard boxes



Penelope LOVES toy food, tea sets and toy kitchens. Doesn't matter how many tea sets or pretend food she owns, she LOVES all of it. She adores this toy kitchen. She has a "real" toy kitchen in her room but she loves this one more. She asked me if she could keep it for "eighty-four-fourty-days." I told her of course she could.

 


Sexy pushed on kids... and remembering why I give my kids toy weapons

I wasn't very happy when my little girls were picking out a generic Barbie from the dollar store… one clearly lacked appropriate clothing. I was pretty shocked at the doll staring back at me and wondered how anyone thought this was ok. Layla laughed and said something was wrong with her clothes. Penelope (4) happily exclaimed, "Mom, look! It’s nursing Barbie with a nursing shirt for nursing babies."

This made me smile.

Perspective is everything. I'm glad I didn't say anything ---and I generally don't because I do not like to point out what I deem is wrong to an impressionable child unless I’m sure something needs to be corrected or taught. Six and four are not ages that I worry about my girls getting the wrong message because they are given the right message everyday all day at home. To make a big deal out of something is usually the worst thing to do. In this situation Penelope showed a gleaming example that sometimes it's what you are raised around that really makes the biggest impression on the mind.

This actually reminded me of a great article called "Bang! Bang! You're Dead!" Like a lot of parents I once struggled with the rough play that accompanies swords and guns ...and boys. I was one of those parents who thought it was too violent. For a time was constantly concerned about the gun play with my first two boys. I thought I could curb the behavior at a young age, switch their interests to more peaceful themed play. I took weapons away, or wouldn’t buy them; to my dismay they made them out of things anyway: sticks, carrots, pencils, Legos, a finger…all can be used as weapons of mass destruction to the right imagination.

I complained that it's not good to shoot people or stab people. I dramatically worried for their future. Thinking back now it's laughable. A funny thing happened when Penelope was two and a half. She was playing guns with her brothers and as she was saying, “BANG, BANG!” I said in a tender voice, “Penelope I don’t really like that kind of play because guns can hurt people.” Penelope looked up at me with her deep blue eyes, blinked and replied, “Silly mom, this is a p'tend gun, not a real gun!” I laughed gingerly and agreed that was silly of me. I couldn’t cope with the difference between real and fake? But my bright, happy girly-girl of a daughter could? This gave me some food for thought.

What I realized many years ago was that *I* was putting my fears and knowledge of the big scary world on my very young children. It wasn't right and it wasn't fair. Not only was I smothering their natural instincts of play I was also shaming them. I was often times accidentally making my boys feel bad or awkward for wanting to play with things that is very much part of who boys are. Stereotype it all you want –and my girls do like weapon play too- but it's nothing like my boys.

Good guy vs. bad guy is as old as time and I soon realized I was taking all the fun away...and learning. Now you’ll hear me saying things like: "When you’re done playing put your weapons in the weapon box!" "Don’t leave your wood swords in the rain." “Please let your little brother play with that sword.” “Where is the gun Sebastian likes?”

We have two weapon toy boxes, one upstairs and one on the back porch. My girls and boys have lots of fun and their dad joins in too: potato guns, marshmallow guns, squirt guns, Nerf guns, swords, sticks, daggers, plastic grenades. I enjoy seeing my kids being kids.

From the link I shared above:
There is a gap between how adults see weapons play and how children experience it. As one psychiatrist put it, "We are so afraid of aggression in this society that we haven't been able to talk intelligently about it." While adults disapprove, children are often doing the child's work of play: experimenting with power and excitement, action and reaction, in a safe, make-believe world.

While I have no interest in changing my mindset about our ‘too sexy too soon’ society when it comes to young impressionable girls (and boys!) the situation at hand with the dolls breasts exposed was a cute and memorable reminder that how I see things vs. how my child experiences them just might be two very different things.

April 15, 2008- April 23, 2008

FREE PLAY/OUTSIDE TIME
Lots of days have been going by quickly and since the weather is turning nice a lot of time has been spent in free play outdoors. The kids have been playing a lot with sand, water, and on the trampoline. We also have spent a lot of time at the park because Charlotte has had lots of soccer practice.

NO VIDEO GAMES/TV
I've been much better at limiting TV and video games lately. We generally have a no TV rule until 3pm but that had slipped over time. So unless it pertains to our homeschool lessons in someway TV is off. Sometimes video games are used as an afternoon incentive to get work done quick, clean up, and then leave mom alone to make/cook some lunch :) But for the most part finally the TV is off again.

READING
Ethan has started reading Magic Tree House books on his own. Sage is doing really well with his flashcards and finally seems to be less frustrated with reading. I found a page I think could help Sage immensely links for k-12 teachers more specifically this page here . I am excited to help him with the pages today and see how it goes. Charlotte is reading the Chronicles of Narnia. She has finished the first book and is now reading the second. It's good to see her into a series again.

BRAIN POP
Lately they want http://www.brainpop.com/ morning noon and night. And I'm cool with that.

JOURNALING
I've got Ethan writing in his paper journal again and I'm trying to get Sage to get back into the habit. I'm also hoping Charlotte will start writing in her online blog again this week. She likes journaling, I just have to remind her to. So I need to make it more of a priority and routine for her.

EARTH DAY
Yesterday we went to the Earth Day festivities at the university. We got to see good friends and the kids and I came home with sprouting flowers, planting seeds, a bird house to assemble, bird seed, pine cone bird feeders, Charlotte got her face painted, and we have assortments of handouts and what-not.

It was a long day. We had Earth Day at 11am, Sports program at 1:30pm, and soccer practice from 5-7pm. I was pretty tired when we got home and everyone crashed hard after seeing dad for a little while.

TODAY
Humm what to do today. It will be 82! I think we should paint outside after we do some reading and journaling.

chicks hatching, free play

The chicks started hatching a couple days ahead of schedule. Layla and Penelope are beyond themselves with excitement. Penelope (18mos) points, squeals, bounces, and just loves these eggs that just popped open with something alive! The older kids are of course having fun too. We also just had one of our cats give birth. She had 5 kitties (want one?). Penelope squealed about those too. Spring is in the air!


The kids played from sun up until sundown yesterday. I kept waiting for a good time to pull them away for worksheets (or lunch) but they never let up with their fun and games. They actually choose to skip lunch which is just a shocker! They had so much fun and there wasn't one bicker or fight. It was a welcome surprise. Lately they have been playing a lot, but bickering incessantly. To top it off Penelope took a 3 hour nap by herself. So it was a good day!


The other day the older 3 played for 3 hours straight with balloons on the trampoline. Before that they had made kites from balloons and shared them with their younger sisters. I so long for those endless days of childhood when such simple activities provide literally hours of imaginative play. What happens to our adult brains that we forget. I love having kids because it keeps me young at heart. It's like reliving childhood, but through the eyes of an adult so it can be appreciated.

Today is sports program, and then soccer practice. I better get moving or I'm never going to get out of here.